


Shooting Star

by Rxchello



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam's mentioned for like 2 seconds, Alternate Reality, Angst, But we all knew that, Caring, Determined Keith, Happy Ending, Its never goodbye, Keith is Shiro's weakness, Keith turns 18 in this!!, Keith's a good boi, Longing, M/M, One-Shot, Post-Kerberos Mission, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Protective shiro, Reconciling, Revamp of S1 events, Search for a Black Paladin, Shiro is Keith's Anchor, Slight fluff, Stars, but no one understood him like Shiro, no funny business here!, waiting for each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 03:57:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15941306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rxchello/pseuds/Rxchello
Summary: "Around this time of year there's a shooting star that's extremely visible over the horizon here," Shiro gestured to the spot where they stood. "If you need me, talk to it as if I were there."Shiro knew leaving Keith was the strongest risk he had to take when it came to accepting the Kerberos mission, but he also knew if he gave the wayward soul an alternative, he'd adapt.He never thought Keith would figure out the secret behind it, though. And where did he get a robotic lion?





	Shooting Star

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea sitting for awhile. It was time to put some words to it. :D

" _ I'm going on the mission. _ " Shiro said it with so much certainty Keith knew trying to argue against it would be futile. Shiro had heard enough doubt from the higher-ups, from  _ Adam. _ He didn't need it from Keith too.

So as Keith bit his tongue to hold back tears while Shiro got his affairs in order, he was at a loss for words. He couldn't make Shiro feel guilty for leaving; like he had the power to do  _ that _ . He couldn't go with him. He could only stand on the tarmac waiting for the ship to take off, waiting until it was out of eyesight. Until Shiro was gone.

But Shiro was still in front of him, giving a knowing look at the way Keith's mouth was in a tight line.

"I'll miss you too," Keith's eyes widened, stray tears evaporating as he glanced around, the only one out there with the older man. " _ Keith. _ " Affirmation. 

"I-" Shiro knew words weren't Keith's forte. He also knew Keith was scared to say anything that would hold him back.

_ He _ had the power to do that, which was Shiro's only weakness. 

"But let me make a suggestion," Shiro looked towards the sky as he pulled Keith into a side embrace. Keith's eyes followed Shiro's until it met a clear horizon over the cliff of the garrison. "Around this time of year there's a shooting star that's extremely visible over the horizon here," Shiro gestured to the spot where they stood. "If you need me, talk to it as if I were there." It was a little more sentimental than Keith was used to hearing from the older pilot, so of course his first reaction was to laugh. “Hey!”

"I'm sorry, that's just something I'd never thought I'd hear you say-" Keith couldn't keep his laugh at bay as Shiro pulled him into a full-on embrace, his co-pilots calling for him in the distance.

"It'll hold you over until I get back." And they left it at that. No goodbye. It wasn't goodbye. It was merely a break in the time they'd see each other, and both could learn to accept it.

Keith didn't realize how much Shiro meant to him until he found himself trying hard to behave at the Garrison so he'd be there for the crew's return. He studied hard, bested every student in his class, yet still managed to keep his mouth shut, something the teacher's weren't used to.

No one complained.

That is until Keith started to go stir-crazy. He didn't fit the cadet image like everyone else did, he just told himself to so he didn't risk disappearing. He wanted to tell Shiro how stupid it was that he had to stand up straight and speak clearly. How he had to look straight ahead at all times unless addressed. He never did before, but he also had an anchor keeping him there that mechanically flew away.

After wandering the Garrison's landing deck every night looking for the exact spot he and Shiro parted ways, he saw the star Shiro pointed out to him and sighed.

"Am I really going to talk to a star?"

He did. Religiously. Every night he found himself on the deck telling "Shiro" his faults and strengths of the day. How he didn't punch James across the face, how he didn't throw Lance's lunch across the cafeteria. He was trying to be better, if only to hold his own here since he didn't have a mentor to vouch for him anymore. 

He had a feeling this was all too simple to be real.

Unfortunately it was, for the reports of the Kerberos mission didn’t come in as victorious as anticipated. He talked to that damn star for a  _ year _ . He celebrated his 18th birthday with it. He felt like a fool.

Shiro knew he wasn't coming back. The star told Keith that.

So instead of saying goodbye to the discipline case, Shiro gave him another anchor with the shadow of his presence. Keith left the Garrison the day the speculation came in that each member of the Kerberos mission crew had died due to pilot error. He didn’t want to be involved with a facility that would disrespect Shiro’s talent like that.

It wasn’t pilot error. Keith would prove it.

But first, he had to kick a few alien asses. Shiro always told him he believed there were aliens out there waiting to meet us, but when Keith opened the front door of his shack one day to meet two feline-like faces with guns pointed at him, he didn't think he wanted to meet anymore. 

"Take us to the Blue Lion!" They confirmed his suspicion about the energy he was feeling that drew him to the shack he resided in. He had a whole board drawn up about the rumored Blue Lion, even suspected it was an alien technology. But he had no reason to share it with anyone. Who would believe him? The only person who would wasn’t with him.

Wielding a dagger he had since birth, he managed to defeat the two intruders, almost stabbing a former classmate in the face as he appeared behind their fallen bodies.

"What the  _ heck _ , Keith?" The shrill voice of Lance gasping hit Keith's ears, causing the grip on his dagger to tighten. "Who were these guys?"

"How'd you find me?"

"I've been tracking their ship since it came into orbit. They're aliens, but I can't figure out what race. They led us here." The shorter classmate behind Lance, Pidge, explained while adjusting her glasses.

" _ Great, _ " Keith groaned, ushering the trio in before showing off his research. "Guess we're all going on a witch hunt then."

"Says who?"

"Says the fact that I just killed two aliens who probably have friends, who also probably want a piece of whatever this  _ Blue Lion _ is."

And so the foursome took off, traveling to a rune-filled cave to a lion in a a shield.

A shield that broke for Lance, the lion scooping all of them up and carrying them into space. They ended up on an alien planet at a castle, awakening a Princess who explained everything they needed to know.

After pointing out a problem, of course. 

"There are five lions though, and four of you. We need to find a fifth. A _ natural leader _ ."

It almost hit Keith like a bullet, the name he immediately thought of.

" _ Shiro. _ "

"Shiro's gone, Keith." It was Hunk, the nicer of the foursome, who pointed out the obvious to the timid red paladin.

"As far as we know! However, if I may take Red, there is one more place I’d like to check for him." Keith pleaded with the princess, the lion's jaw already open for his arrival.

"I'm coming too!" Pidge demanded, already jumping in her lion before they both took off, leaving the rest to their own devices.

"So you think the crew is still alive?" Pidge couldn’t contain her excitement over the thought Keith may know the whereabouts of her family. She knew he was close to Shiro; maybe he reached out!

"Yeah, but I don't know where." Pidge's lion stopped abruptly, almost crashing into Keith's as they approached the spot in the galaxy that he was looking for.

"Then why are we out here?"

"I'm looking for a star." Keith's voice was monotone. Pidge gathered he wasn't very emotional in front of people.

"Not to be a downer, but i don't think right now is the time for  _ stargazing." _

"It's the star Shiro told me to talk to when I needed him. Until he got back, at least." Pidge quieted then, trying to keep herself together as she heard Keith's breathing shallow in the comm. 

"Well, which one is it?" Pidge glanced around, not seeing a star in sight.

However, there was a spec of light whirling in a comet-like pattern.

"It should be here," Keith sighed angrily, Red trying to calm his mind as Pidge zoomed closer to the spec. "Where are you going?"

"I don't think it was a star!" Keith then followed until they both hovered towards a singular spacecraft traveling a repetitive orbit, pausing when it noticed both lions.

"State your business!" Pidge called out to the ship, to no reply. She furrowed her brows and dispatched from the cockpit of her lion, floating towards the spacecraft with Keith in tow. The latch was unlocked, and once in they both felt a sense of unease.

"Is anyone in here?" Keith asked, voice harsh. Was his second anchor a lie as well? "Answer me!" Keith made his way over to the control panel, the screens all lit up to state one thing over and over.

Coordinates. Commands.

Coordinates to ensure the ship would fly across the sky at a certain point for someone on the garrison's landing deck to see. 

For him to see.

Commands to keep this route up daily.

A note with his name on it, the handwriting evidence of a tired captain.

He felt like he was about to explode then. In anger. In longing. He had been talking to the damn thing for years, all for it to be a trick programmed by someone? He slammed his fist on the control panel as Pidge gasped, struggling to talk as Keith turned around.

The real star almost blinded him.

" _ Keith? _ " His voice was rugged. His hair was a different color. He had a prosthetic limb. Exhaustion traced every feature on his face, his appearance a broken soul compared to the last time they saw each other’s gaze. But in his eyes was the strongest change that almost killed Keith.

He saw longing.  _ Mutual longing.  _ Keith had changed a lot as well, no longer the cadet Shiro mentored. Their looks were no longer admiration. They were level now. Desperate.

" _ Takashi. _ " Keith couldn't help falling into Shiro's grasp despite how injured the man looked. He needed to be sure it wasn't all a dream. An illusion from an actual star.

It was a ship. it was Shiro. Not a ghost back from the dead, not a star conveniently traveling on the same orbit. It was Shiro looking over him the whole time, keeping his promise to always be there for him.

Pidge turned her head to let them enjoy their moment, observant to how badly they both needed the reunion.

"What are you doing here?" Shiro looked over at Pidge with an appreciative smile as he held Keith in his arms, trying to keep it together for the sake of the two in front of him.

"What are  _ you  _ doing here?" Keith shot back, running a hand through the white tuft of Shiro's hair. "The whole world thinks you and the Holts are dead!"

"What?"

"From pilot error. Stupid, right?" 

"That's offensive to my name," Shiro snorted, exhaustion in all his features. "but false. There's a lot I need to explain--" 

"Which you can when we get back to where we came from. News flash; it wasn't Earth! I’m assuming my family isn’t here, so news flash part two; we probably shouldn’t have the lions out in the open to be tracked! Let's move people!" Pidge, logistics and all, killed their moment and ushered them back into the cockpit of the Red Lion, following behind in the Green Lion as they headed back towards Princess Allura's castle. Shiro's eyes were glued to the control panel of the lion, the scenery of the alien planet, and the all around ease Keith seemed to radiate at the situation. He had so many questions, but he couldn't kill the younger man's stride.

They'd reconcile in Shiro's dorm later, after Shiro explained his capture by the Galra and Allura explained just what they were up against as the Paladins of Voltron.

"So you were the star the whole time, huh?" Keith smirked as he leaned in the doorway, expression softening at the panic in Shiro's eyes. "It's just me."

"Sorry, sorry." Shiro flashed an apologetic smile, patting the space next to him on his bed for Keith to sit down. "There used to be a star, but it burned out. I knew you'd find the idea stupid but eventually confide in it," Shiro mused in the dark, eyes ahead of him as Keith remained at his side. "I couldn't leave you in more than one way." 

"You never _ left  _ me," Keith assured, hand on Shiro's as he guided the troubled man's gaze towards his own. "Leaving would mean saying goodbye. You never said goodbye."

"Because I couldn't bring myself to."

"Because you knew we'd see each other again."

"I didn’t, but I held onto the idea of seeing you again. That’s what kept me going."

What happened next was lost in the darkness of the dorm, but all of the stars seemed to align between the Red and Black Paladin that night.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Have a good day <3


End file.
